Editing Railtrack (section)

==Compensation==

===Litigation===
In late 2001, Railtrack shareholders formed two groups to press for increased compensation.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2737913/Student-sets-up-action-group-to-lobby-for-360p.html |title = Student sets up action group to lobby for 360p |newspaper = The Daily Telegraph |date = 16 October 2001 |access-date = 2 April 2018 |archive-date = 16 March 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110316034533/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2737913/Student-sets-up-action-group-to-lobby-for-360p.html|url-status = live }}</ref> A lawyer speaking for one of those groups remarked on [[GMTV]] that his strategy was to sue the government for incorrect and misleading information given at the time Railtrack was created, when [[John Major]] was Conservative [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]. An increased offer of up to 262p per share was enough to convince the larger shareholder group, the Railtrack Action Group, to abandon legal action. The Chairman, Usman Mahmud, believed that legal action would not be successful without the support of management and major shareholders.<ref name=chest>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/2399647.stm |title = Rail War Chest |work = BBC News |date = 4 November 2002 |access-date = 7 January 2006 |archive-date = 5 October 2003 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20031005125028/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/2399647.stm |url-status = live }}</ref>

The legality of the decision to put Railtrack into railway administration was challenged by the smaller Railtrack Private Shareholders Action Group. Their action against the government alleged that the Secretary of State for Transport at the time – Stephen Byers MP – had, by deciding to cut off funding for Railtrack and asking the High Court to put the company into railway administration, committed the [[common law]] [[tort]] of [[misfeasance in public office]].<ref name = "wolmar 2005"/><ref name=chest/> It is believed that there was £532&nbsp;million available to Railtrack comprising £370&nbsp;million in the bank,<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hsbc-sued-over-freeze-on-370m-account-9167250.html |title = HSBC sued over freeze on £370m in account |newspaper = The Independent |date = 9 October 2001 |access-date = 10 September 2017 |archive-date = 5 March 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305014152/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hsbc-sued-over-freeze-on-370m-account-9167250.html |url-status = live }}</ref> along with £162&nbsp;million of an existing Department of Transport loan facility still available to be drawn down, but Stephen Byers MP cancelled this facility, causing shareholders to believe that he had broken the loan agreement.<ref name = "timeline guardian2002"/><ref>{{cite news |url = http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics/Fresh-Railtrack-attack-on-Byers.2276134.jp |title = Fresh Railtrack attack on Byers |newspaper = The Scotsman |date = 15 November 2001 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110524135444/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics/Fresh-Railtrack-attack-on-Byers.2276134.jp |archive-date = 24 May 2011 }}</ref>

This was the largest class action ever conducted in the English courts – there were 49,500 claimants, all small shareholders in Railtrack. Keith Rowley, QC, the barrister for the shareholders, alleged Byers had "devised a scheme by which he intended to injure the shareholders of Railtrack Group by impairing the value of their interests in that company without paying compensation and without the approval of Parliament".<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2918022/Byers-to-answer-charge-that-he-misled-Railtracks-shareholders.html |title = Byers to answer charge that he misled Railtrack's shareholders |newspaper = The Daily Telegraph |date = 25 June 2005 |access-date = 2 April 2018 |archive-date = 6 July 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160706212412/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2918022/Byers-to-answer-charge-that-he-misled-Railtracks-shareholders.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

The case was heard in the High Court in London in July 2005; some embarrassment was caused to Byers when he admitted that an answer he had given to a House of Commons Select Committee was inaccurate, but on 14 October 2005 the judge found that there was no evidence that Byers had committed the [[tort]] of [[misfeasance in public office]].<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4340794.stm |title = Defeat for Railtrack shareholders |work = BBC News |date = 14 October 2005 |access-date = 28 December 2008 |archive-date = 28 December 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071228194005/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4340794.stm |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.theguardian.com/transport/Story/0,2763,1592837,00.html |title = Railtrack shareholders lose court battle for compensation |newspaper = The Guardian |date = 15 October 2005 |first = Mark |last = Milner |access-date = 12 December 2016 |archive-date = 28 July 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200728132043/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/oct/15/transportintheuk.politics |url-status = live }}</ref> The private shareholders decided not to appeal against the judgment because there were no legal grounds for doing so. For many of them – who had contributed around £50 each, on average, to the fighting fund to bring the action – the case had served its purpose.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.rpsag.org.uk/AppealDecision.pdf |title = Appeal Decision |publisher = RPSAG |date = 21 October 2005}} {{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The circumstances in which Railtrack had been put into administration were highly controversial, with allegations in Parliament on 24 October 2005 that the company had not been insolvent at the time (7 October 2001) and therefore that the administration order had been wrongly obtained. This was because of the jurisdiction of the independent rail regulator – at the time Tom Winsor – to provide additional money to maintain the company's financial position. Sir Alan Duncan MP, then the shadow transport secretary, said in Parliament that this aspect of the affair – which was not dealt with in the shareholders' case in the High Court – was "perhaps the most shameful scar on the Government's honesty" and "an absolute scandal".<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo051024/debtext/51024-12.htm |title = Hansard Debates |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110605025930/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo051024/debtext/51024-12.htm |archive-date = 5 June 2011 |publisher = The Stationery Office |date = 24 October 2005}}</ref>

Byers apologised in the House of Commons on 17 October 2005 for having given a "factually inaccurate" reply to the Select Committee but said that he had not intended to mislead them.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4350370.stm |title = Byers denies lying over Railtrack |work = BBC News |date = 17 October 2005 |access-date = 28 December 2008 |archive-date = 16 March 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060316083310/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4350370.stm |url-status = live }}</ref> This personal statement to Parliament was not accepted by the MP who had asked the original question, and the matter was remitted to the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee for investigation. As a result of that committee's report, Mr Byers made another statement of apology to Parliament.<ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jan/31/politics.transportintheuk |title = Byers told to apologise over Railtrack |newspaper = The Guardian |date = 31 January 2006 |access-date = 12 December 2016 |archive-date = 14 April 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160414024432/http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jan/31/politics.transportintheuk |url-status = live }}</ref>

===Payments to shareholders===
RT Group plc (in voluntary liquidation) made a number of payments to shareholders during the winding up of the company's affairs before finally being dissolved on 22 June 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.rtgroup.co.uk/ |title = RT Group homepage |publisher = RT Group |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120716192203/http://www.rtgroup.co.uk/ |archive-date = 16 July 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = https://www.ft.com/content/5cd7d316-4cc6-11e1-8741-00144feabdc0 |title = Can I offset losses on my Railtrack shares? |newspaper = [[Financial Times]] |date =  |first = Lucy |last = Warwick-Ching |access-date = 5 December 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|December 2003 || 200[[Penny|p]]<ref>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2573805.stm |title = New Year cash back for rail investors |work = BBC News |date = 13 December 2002 |access-date = 14 December 2002 |archive-date = 21 December 2002 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021221232805/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2573805.stm |url-status = live }}</ref>
|-
|August 2004 || 43p
|-
|December 2004 || 9p
|-
|December 2005 || 8.5p
|-
|March 2010 || 2.071865p
|}